Thursday 8 October 2020

2 October Live session with Lynnda Wardle ~ "Write around the Room"

Lynnda's theme today took inspiration from the classic 'Journey Around my Room’ 1794 by Xavier de Maistre (a soldier confined to his quarters for 6 weeks because he was caught in an illegal duel) we will explore our own surroundings to uncover material for intense, focused writing.


"Walk around the edges of your kitchen keeping you back to the wall. Notice everything. Touch the surfaces, notice how the surface feel. Notice what you see, both ordinary and anything you haven’t noticed before. Look at how things are arranged against the wall. What is in the middle of the room?  Spend a few moments looking up at the ceiling what do you notice?"


"Imagine the room is a landscape. Think of the floor: is it a forest floor, a desert, the sea, a bog? Describe this imagined floor. 

Thinking of the furniture: what kind of shapes do they form? Mountains? Icebergs? Giant trees etc?

Tall objects like cupboards or the fridge? What form do they take? Cliffs? Etc

Ceiling? What kind of covering? Sky? Or something else?

Now take these elements and thread them together as a short piece of writing in any form. Include your souvenir object. What is its function? What could it be used for in this new landscape? Does it have a story of its own?

Catrice's found object was this poem she wrote at the age of ten:





You can see some of Lynnda Wardle's writing here





Fire in The Void 
by Catrice Greer


Be functional. 
Pack it here. 
Tuck it there. 
Small and compact hovel in the dark
an unnatural void  
everything lined against the walls of it 
caverned in 
unhinged photos leaning 
on each other for support 
conspicuously bare walls say 
I am not sure I want to be here 
half in half out
building the storied wall 
dripping with packed stacks 
like stalactite stalagmite 
stacks from the floor 
minerals that have fed me 
in the years of starvation
bibliophile, these bookish gems 
sparkle-encrusted with bits and bobs 
telling the stories of my life 
with no room no more room to share
Yet so many stories
wainscoted sealed in the ceiling of this cave 
a craggy space 
this feline, green glass-eyed partner 
slinking here and there,
we are squeezed in 
safe 
this workstation piled, peppered 
with delicate pressed wood pulp stacks
styluses for stoking 
a fire pit glowing in the center
churning the lighted mind 
the electric of every thought 
lightening 'round the voided space
I find myself 
set up to live 
hoveled in the dark 
A fire bearer